You have to take each on for what they are. Some religions are more cultural than others e.g Islam, hinduism so therefore due to it's strong cultural ties it always remains as the dominant religion in that culture. Christianity to me remains the most challenging one to think more deeply due to it's richness and complexity and is prevalent worldwide.
The African nations e.g where out of the turmoil of colonial experience bore out their own adoption of christianity. Seeing Jesus through a non -European lens has been the key to transformation of chrisitianity for them.

Buddhism/Sikhism is more spiritual as it concentrates more on meditation and the spiritual realm. All religions offer something valuable. One thing they all have in common is a belief in god. How they practise might be different, but as humans are slaves to their own human nature we will never agree entirely on things.

Man was made to have free will and due to the sinful nature of man we will always have religious conflicts whilst on earth. As for scientology will have to look into that a bit more too.

And you are completely mistaken if you believe that religious views consist of a host of incompatible belief systems when you know nothing of it....since you only look at science without theology. You may then know why people actually believe in god. I've seen present day healing from divine intervention but I guess you would struggle to believe that. I've had the most strangest things happen that can only be godincidences that changed my view in time and made me look deeper into religion and faith. You cannot see god but he is present through the holy spirit in us and that is richness in my eyes, something that athiests will never try and open their mind too.

Working in the secular IT world I am so thankful that I can experience something so entirely different and look beyond what is tangible.

To me this is much more that the origin of the universe in justifying believing in god. It's a shame that you think belief in god is intellectual cowardice. Science is wonderful when trying to explain things between forces in the material world, but when it comes to explain value and meaning it doesn't do that. What about the search for truth and understanding. God makes better sense. It involves the intellect, heart, reason, and wisdom. Strange, your so adamant that there is no need for meaning in life. If there is no purpose what is the point? How does justice prevail? If you were about to lose someone in your life who is the first person you would turn to and pray to for HOPE, in my view that is god! Why do scientists always want evidence for everything. I would rather have faith and some mystery which is the beauty of it. Would you marry your wife on evidence alone? In faith we go beyond evidence to a deep personal relationship with god. I suggest you read questions of truth; god, science and belief by John Polkinghorne above, or if you read the synoptic gospels, scripture, apocolyptic literature you may be pleasanty surprised. Amen Mr Bob

No worries if you think that, it's cool!

For me Evolution doesn't answer:
1) How did the Earth/universe come into existence?
2) How did life start?
3) How did life get to where it is today - (Evolution explains only #3)

The reason for looking at the meaning of life is I believe that we were made to have meaning. This is why people try dubious methods like astrology or physics to discover it. When life has meaning you can bear almost anything, without it nothing is bearable. I think without god life has no purpose, and without purpose life has no meaning, without meaning life has no significance or hope. Christian theology offers intelligent understanding and challenges profound ways of thinking about the essence of god. The conception of god is naive in many places and Dawkins trades on that. I have nothing against other religions but Iike the fact that christianity's centric focus is love and grace which unfortunately many churches are not good at conveying across, hence why so many people reject it as boring, unrelevant and controlling in today's world. I spent many years thinking like you, until I had a change of heart by delving deeper into this. I believe we were created by a loving god to have free will and whether you embrace him or reject him is up to you. I think debates on both sides are good for healthy questioning about life.

Well perhaps if you study both theology and science in depth then you may come up with a good reason to what you believe. Science has made great progress but haven't yet come to an answer to many things. Christianity has survived and is constantly growing at an alarming as the centre point is Jesus christ which there is evidence for him and what he did. The plausible answer isn't ignorant as it is stating that there more likely is a god which we can't empirically prove like we can with 2x2=4. What is ignorant is not looking beyond ourselves in order to find out the meaning of life and whether god does exist which unfortunately many don't want to think about because it offers too much of a challenge or we're so busy existing in this materialist world, or the usual 'religion controls people' which is not only an insult to the many people worldwide who have faith but doesn't bother to ask what is christianity and why does it exist..

In ref to what grumpybob is saying, I think it is quite ignorant for people to say that there is no god of any kind at all without challenging oneself to look deeper into profound theological study. There is plenty evidence of Jesus's life on earth and his resurrection and claims in the bible and other historical documentation that there is a god.
By one having personal experiences of faith, reading the timeless gospels that are still applicable today, prophesies etc there is that evidence. However at the same time you cannot prove god and disprove him like you can prove something tangible, however looking at both sides of the coin of how the universe was created etc...there being a sovereign god who is beyond human conceptualisation is a more plausible answer. And yes religion and science can work very well together - science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind or the other way around......As for evolution it is fantastic and god is all for it..